Nicki Minaj Officially Retires from the Music Industry  — Then Deletes the Tweet

Nicki Minaj’s September 5th ‘Retirement Tweet’

Is Nicki Minaj the latest artist to exit the music industry?  Or just the latest to pull the “I’m retiring” publicity stunt?

Let’s see.

On Thursday (September 5th), the 36-year-old took to Twitter to make the announcement, which came as a surprise to the vast majority of her fans.  In the relatively vague message, Nicki Minaj wrote, “I’ve decided to retire & have my family” (see above).

She also thanked her fans for their continued support.

Less than 24 hours, Minaj deleted the tweet and apologized to her fans.  “The tweet was abrupt & insensitive,” she backtracked earlier today (Friday).  “I apologize babe.”

It’s unclear what—if anything besides a desire to “have” a family—motivated Minaj to step away from music — or at least threaten to step away.

Minaj split from Meek Mill in 2017, and she’s kept her subsequent relationship(s) out of the spotlight.

Nicki Minaj, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, rose to prominence in 2010, after releasing Pink Friday. The album reached the top of the Billboard 200 and was certified triple platinum by RIAA for selling the equivalent of three million records.

Minaj’s most recent album, Queen, is also certified platinum. When Nicki’s Queen tour plans were announced, few faulted her decision to initially promote the album with shows in Europe; North American dates were expected to be announced after the fact.

In retrospect, though, it’s telling that Minaj performed 19 shows and ended the tour before coming to North America, especially when she has the celebrity and support to fill arenas around the globe. It appears that she was simply burned out.

To be sure, Nicki Minaj has performed well over 100 of her own concerts, a multitude of television spots, several music festivals, and the 2012 Superbowl Halftime Show, all in less than 10 years.

And though Minaj’s supposed retirement presumably concerns music, she didn’t mention hanging up her successful acting career.

Minaj has appeared in television shows including Saturday Night Live, The Cleveland Show, America’s Next Top Model, and Keeping Up with the Kardashians. She also has several high-profile film roles to her credit, and she voiced Pinky in The Angry Birds Movie 2, which came out in August.

Nicki Minaj has non-music professional options available, but with so many fans clamoring for her comeback, it seems likely that she’ll return to the microphone at some point—possibly after she rests up and unwinds from the breakneck working pace she’s set during the last decade.